Still reeling from the conclusion of the Super Bowl last night we hit the road. We discovered a few things in our stay in Nevada. First, smoking is legal in the casinos here and there seems to be a high correlation between gamblers and smokers. Second, their gas seems like it's the most expensive in the country at $3.29 a gallon - it cost $68 to fill up the truck. Ron thinks it was a tourist trap station as prices were lower past that place but they lead you to believe it was the last chance to fill up. The gas is even cheaper in California. The lowest it has been was $1.95 in South Carolina. Third, after the Super Bowl the big news story in Henderson today was the beginning of the trial against the Bundys and their followers. Clive Bundy was that rancher who grazed government land but didn't want to pay and started a standoff. It was cloudy today and very windy for the drive. It's amazing how much open, uninhabited stretches of land there are out west. You look and you see nothing but mountains in the distance for miles and miles. Drove through a large portion of the Mojave desert which I'm sure everyone has heard of, but did you realize there was a Mojave River? We didn't until we approached a bridge indicating the Mojave River. We drove over it. It was as dry as the desert. We also drove over our first tumbleweed of the trip and saw acres of solar panels and 1,000's of windmills. We added our last state - California - and as we got further into the state we noticed that the landscape was suddenly very green in comparison to the last few days of our journey. It also appears that the drought is over in this area as there is standing water in many of the oranges and almond fields. We thought of the grandkids when we passed the fields of "halos".
The off the interstate portion of today's trip was a jaunt to the Giant Sequoia National monument - home of the oldest living things on earth - the giant Sequoia. It was kinda on the way to Sacramento except for the back roads part and back roads it was! A 60 plus mile winding path through the Sierra Nevada mountains in the dead of winter. We must be empathetic for our friends back east and their battle with all the snow. After two harrowing hours we arrived but the visitor center just closed so we meandered on our own discovering Grant's tree (2nd largest on earth) and a grove of Sequoias. Was it worth it? Sure. Why not? When would we ever have the opportunity to see such majesty - both the daunting Sierra's and the incredible trees.
A quick stop for some pizza after we left the park and then it was on to Sacramento. It was raining pretty hard and I think we are in far rain all week. I thought it never rains in Southern California - oh I guess we're not in So Cal anymore. We arrived about 9:30 tired but pleased that we had a nice cross country trip and thrilled to see Jason, Chris and CJ. I may not post for a few days - I have baby rocking to do but stay tuned for more of our Cali adventures.
Views along the road
Views of Sequoia National Park
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